The present invention relates to a screen material for filtering various products or retaining solid filter media. Particularly, the present invention relates to a filtering material used in various applications such as water filtration, the production of oil and gas, sugar processing, etc.
A conventional screen material used in oil and gas production, water filtration, sugar processing, etc., typically includes a filter wire spirally wrapped around a series of rigid rods formed in a cylinder. The wrapped wire and/or supporting rods may have a triangular- or other-shaped profile. The filter wire is typically wrapped around the rigid longitudinal rods so that consecutive windings of the wire are spaced sufficiently close together to form a filter gap between the consecutive windings. The filter gap retains a predetermined particle size, but allows fluid and very small particles to pass.
Triangular-shaped, as well as round, profile filter wire is often utilized in conventional screen material. As described above, a triangular-shaped, or round, profile filter wire is spirally wrapped around a series of rigid longitudinal rods. The resulting cylinder can be used as-is or split or cut along its length between two of the rigid longitudinal rods. Once split, the cylinder can then be opened and rolled into a flat sheet of screen material having the rigid rods running parallel to each other in one direction and the triangular- or other-shaped profile filter wire laying generally perpendicularly across the rigid rods to form a grid-like structure. In this way, sheets of the filtering material can be made and used for various purposes. This filter wire screen material and the method of manufacturing it are known to those of ordinary skill in the art.
Among other things, multiple segments of conventional screen material may have to be employed for certain configurations of filters where the rigidity of conventional screen material does not permit a single screen portion to be molded to serve the particular purpose. A screen material that incorporates the filtering benefits known in conventional screens, including filter wire screens, and which is flexible would be welcomed by users of such screen material.
According to the present invention, a screen material comprises a plurality of long, thin, spaced-apart filter members and a plurality of long, thin, spaced-apart support members coupled transversely to the filter members. At least one of the group comprising a filter member and a support member of the screen material is elastically deformable.